Has anyone ever hiked a 8k meter/26k ft. mountain?

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
James,
You live on the west coast? I see you got rained on in JTree and Sequoia. I would recommend contacting Kurt Wedberg of Sierra Mountaineering International. He runs a guide service out of Bishop CA. Not only does he guide locally, he does trips to Kili, Mt Kenya, Denali, Aconcagua etc. I've taken winter mountaineering courses by his company and will be using him again this summer for some serious technical climbs. I attended a slide show by him this fall on Kili and Mt Kenya(I was intersted in Mt Kenya). He goes every year and this trip might be what you are looking for. He is very professional and comes highly recommended.

[/ QUOTE ]

Used to live in South Lake Tahoe, but I currently live in Steamboat Springs, CO. Thanks for your time!

James

[Jbrochu]

An alpine style ascent basically involves a single push from the base of the route to the summit and back down again. This may take 1 day or several days but all supplies needed are carried.

This is in contrast to a “siege” type ascent where loads are shuttled up the mountain and the climbers typically go up and down several times establishing camps and a supply line along the way before positioning themselves for a final push to the summit.

Alpine ascents on big mountains (like Denali and bigger) usually require partially ascending an easier route in order to acclimate to the altitude before making the alpine style attempt. Otherwise, you risk high altitude sickness such as pulmonary edema and AMS (acute mountain sickness). Style of ascent is a personal preference but alpine style ascents are more highly regarded in the climbing community.

Of course, climbing is an individual (and selfish I believe) pursuit and you should climb in the style that you enjoy provided it doesn’t impact the environment negatively.

I got into it very slowly over a period of many years. Sport climbing is totally inadequate preparation for mountaineering. Hiking is good exercise for it but inadequate preparation. You will want to gain experience trad climbing multipitch rock and ice routes, make summer ascents of mountains like Rainer or similar, and maybe make some winter ascents of something like Mount Washington. It all depends on where you live and how much time off you have. Having a lot of money helps as well. If you need to ask if you need a guide or instructor, then you probably do. However, as you progress from sport climbing to trad climbing you may well meet experienced partners willing to help you learn new climbing disciplines.

Although I don’t do anything really risky anymore (wife and a little girl on the way) climbing hard in wild places really enriched my life for many years. Best of luck to you.

[gojacketz]

I make this walk every morning to work...

[nyc999]

[ QUOTE ]
A really good friend of mine was just invited to do part of Everest in a couple monhts. I think he's [censored] crazy considering he's only done about a half dozen week long hikes in Western US mountains. But, it should be one hell of an experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, that sounds like a really stupid idea.

[MortalWombat]

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone ever hiked a 8k meter/26k ft. mountain?

[/ QUOTE ]I have climbed at least 2600 flights of stairs in my lifetime, so in essence, yes.